Comments on: How could Lee think Pickett’s charge would succeed?http://www.historynet.com/how-could-lee-think-picketts-charge-would-succeed.htm
HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines.Mon, 19 Mar 2018 12:43:00 +0000hourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4By: ltyr2001http://www.historynet.com/how-could-lee-think-picketts-charge-would-succeed.htm#comment-5180136
Tue, 05 Sep 2017 04:51:00 +0000http://historynet.wpengine.com/?p=13687329#comment-5180136There were NO follow up troops even if Pickett’s men had broken the Union line.
And the Union troops were close at hand to fill in gaps and reinforce.
It was hopeless from the start, no matter what Jeb Stewart did in the back.
The Confederates lost when they were beaten back from Little Round Top.
]]>By: A decendant of General Robert E. Lee'shttp://www.historynet.com/how-could-lee-think-picketts-charge-would-succeed.htm#comment-1889590
Fri, 13 Dec 2013 20:59:26 +0000http://historynet.wpengine.com/?p=13687329#comment-1889590It sounds like you are not aware of some of the best history of this event, which can be found in a book called, \Life and Letters of General Robert E. Lee,\ by one of his friends and a chaplain in his army, J.W. Jones. You see, Lee never talked about this battle and the failure of some of his subordinates, only because he was too gentlemanly to do so. He never wanted to bring public criticism to those who had done all they could for the southern cause. Nevertheless, the battle that actually unfolded was not at all what Lee had planned.

To begin with, Longstreet was to have taken Little Round Top at the break of dawn on July 4th. If he had, he would have been unopposed in filling Little Round Top with Confederate artillery, from which he could have shelled the entire southern half of the Union line from the flank. That alone would have devastated the Union position. Jackson would have done it, but Longstreet failed at this point.

Second, when the battle was to have begun, Ewell was supposed to demonstrate against the northern end of the \fish hook\, to prevent them from reinforcing the southern end of the line, by this time having been shelled, was now being rolled upon by Longstreet. And when the southern end of the Union line had begun to collapse, only then was Pickett’s charge to have begun on the confused and panicking Federals. The Union would not have been able to concentrate its artillery and the Confederates quite possibly would have destroyed the Union Army.

After the way, in the presence of close friends, Lee said privately and in confidence, that \If I had had Jackson at Gettysburg, I am confident that we would have won a great victory, and with it, our independence.\

Lee had been left unsighted on the enemy by Stuart and consequentially blundered into a piecemeal action which for once left the Union with the commanding position. With elements of his army still coming up behind him disengagement and manoeuvre in the face of the enemy could have been tactical suicide even when facing someone as indecisive as Meade. I think he was left with few options other than attack although maybe he could have used the mere presence of Pickets troops to pin the union centre whilst he mounted another flanking attack rather than mounting a high risk charge across the open ground.

Mead was handed victory on a plate but his lack of an aggressive follow through when apparent that the Confederates assault was broken probably lost a golden opportunity to break the army of Northern Virginia and shorten the war. Gettysburg was only half the victory it could have been if the union had aggressively exploited its sucess.